The origin was Japanese Association, prior to the War. Is called Nihonjin-kai and then after the war, the word “American” was introduced as a “Japanese American Association” –Nikkeiin-kai. And most of the people, prominent people, in our community were members of this group. We just welcomed everyone who had something to offer.
Our organization is mostly welfare, social, educational, and we take care of many of the old people like myself and the Isseis are pretty well gone but the Nisei are getting into that area. Third generation and people from Japan, we moved to these new quarters here on the 15 West 44th Street. We take up the whole 11th floor. We welcome everyone to come. We have a library which is stocked with Japanese videos and publications. And people always refer to us because we have historical memorabilia. So if anyone wants to research, we also have all the Nichibei (Japan – U.S.) publications here. That’s the local vernacular, which is no longer here in existence.
Date: November 15, 2000
Location: New York, United States
Interviewer: John Esaki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
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